We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage / And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, / We Poets of the proud old lineage / Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why ... (James Elroy Flecker)

11.10.24

Bittersweet October


Because we have turn-about sun and rain

in a world where weather has gone mad

tumbling over each other too quickly,

the abundant growth of Spring exaggerated,

everything flourishing faster than ever

richly adorning the whole landscape, 

surrounding us wherever we look 

with burgeoning leaves and flowers,

every hot day and every wet one

enticing our senses, even as

the swift changes set us reeling …


Our reactions too are rapidly

changing – one day we think,

This is Summer, ahead of time,

only to wake to a sudden return,

bewildering in its rapidity, to Winter.

Even as we rejoice, we begin to expect,

reliably unreliable, constant overturning.


October in the Southern Hemisphere is officially in the middle of Spring.


Written for Magaly's prompt for Friday Writings #148: Bittersweet October, at Poets and Storytellers United.




15 comments:

  1. What a clever and heartening poem - although on different sides of the sphere I sense the change October brings just the same - Jae

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    1. Yes, in either hemisphere it brings change, And is perhaps a mixed blessing.

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  2. Your poem illustrates the madness affecting the weather (here too) perfectly. On our bit of the world is hurricanes and strangely warm temperatures for this late in autumn. There are still tomatoes and flowers in my garden--in October! That might sound nice, but it's so worrying. I wonder what storms will come next... and I shiver.

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    Replies
    1. One's helplessness in the face of it is depressing.

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  3. Love Acrostic poems. This is so beautiful...Rall

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  4. More than the weather, I think the whole planet has gone mad.

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  5. A good Spring to you!

    PK

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    1. Thank you, and a good Autumn (or I guess you say Fall) to you.

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  6. What a great acrostic, Rosemary. Love it!

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  7. Thank you, Helen. I'm delighted you think so.

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  8. Oh I thought I posted a comment...maybe I thought about it and then forgot to actually write the words after I read the poem before!!! "reliably unreliable, constant overturning" - I love that description of not just weather patterns these days but life itself ... and acrostics are such fun!!! :)

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    Replies
    1. Until I thought of doing an acrostic, I was at a loss how to tackle this topic.

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